Gomez for Senate

Sunday

Jun 16, 2013 at 6:00 AM

For the third time in a little more than three years, Massachusetts voters have the opportunity to elect a U.S. senator, and to do so at a time when their choice could have a meaningful impact on control of the Senate. The choice on June 25 is between longtime Rep. Ed Markey and political newcomer Gabriel Gomez.

Both men offer strong and interesting résumés. Mr. Markey served in the Army Reserves, has more than 30 years’ experience in Washington, D.C., and is the most senior member of the Massachusetts congressional delegation. Mr. Gomez, 47, is the son of Colombian immigrants, grew up in Washington state, was a naval aviator and later a Navy SEAL, and after leaving the military earned an MBA from Harvard Business School.

We believe that Mr. Gomez would be more likely to bring to the Senate the balance, bipartisanship and fresh thinking needed to advance our nation’s most important priorities, including the economy, the environment, national defense and immigration reform.

With the exception of Scott Brown’s two-year stint in the Senate, Massachusetts has not had a Republican in the nation’s most select legislative body for 35 years. Party balance alone is not sufficient reason to elect any candidate, but Mr. Gomez demonstrates an independence and articulateness that suggest he would be an effective member of a centrist coalition of Republicans and Democrats that is badly needed to break impasses.

Mr. Gomez has refused to toe his party’s line on several issues, and has distanced himself from more conservative Republican positions that prevail elsewhere in the country.

That has led some to accuse him of being a Republican in name only. Well, Massachusetts is not the Midwest, and a far-right candidacy here invariably ends in a landslide Democratic victory. Massachusetts voters are predominantly unaffiliated with any party and independent in spirit. Their election of Scott Brown in 2010 suggests that they are willing to give independent, centrist candidates a chance.

With Mr. Gomez, voters have a similar opportunity. What an increasingly dysfunctional Senate needs is not control by Democrats or control by Republicans, but firm leadership from independent thinkers of both parties who are willing to quell partisan rhetoric and put behind them the seemingly endless battle for victory in the next election cycle.

Mr. Markey, like Massachusetts’ suddenly senior Sen. Elizabeth Warren, is a reliable liberal/progressive vote on each and every issue. His record over many years in Congress — he was first elected in 1976 — has been reliably and consistently on the side of greater regulation and bigger government, even when acting in the name of consumer rights and protections.

We do not disagree with all of Mr. Markey’s positions, any more than we agree with all of Mr. Gomez’s. But perfection is never on any political ballot. Mr. Markey has served his state long and ably in Congress, but his answers are not the answers needed in the Senate today. Mr. Gomez, while untested in politics, embodies a more recent iteration of the American dream. He is the candidate more likely to reach across the aisle, find common ground and advance the business of the country.

The winner of this election will be under enormous pressure to demonstrate an ability to break through the impasse that so afflicts Washington, for this Senate seat will be contested once more in fall 2014. If ever there was an opportunity for Massachusetts voters to take a chance on new political blood, that time is now. We urge them to cast a ballot for Gabriel Gomez on June 25.